LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 11 March 1912, Page 4

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Parliament is largely recruited from looal bodies, and it is because of this that Parliament is so inUma-My* representative of tWp'eople. Local bodies have a particularly large influence on national politics, and it is therefore just that perfection of local government shall be aimed at in order that national Government shall be good. Most people will agree that New Zealand is over-governed. It has a; plethora of small local bodies whose work is superfluous, even though it may be effected with the 6are that marks the work of Parliament (the accepted ideal for the conduct of local affairs). The multiplication of local bodies has an effect that is reactionary instead of progressive. It leads to the frittering away of money and time. The Premier has shown that he appreciates the chaotic state of local government by the introduction of a measure containing 420 clauses, which, if it is passed, will entirely reform local government methods. The Bill is based on the idea that there shall be a body of provincial "elders," elected from the various bodies in the province and on the same day as members to these bodies are elected. The "elders," the county councillors and the borough councillors will be elected at the same time. The system will alter the method of taxation, for the "elders" will have the power to impose general rates upon the whole province over which they have jurisdiction, or any portion of such province which may be separate by the local government board for the purposes of collecting revenue. The county and borough councils will, in effect, be "feeders" to the provincial council, and therefore the financial worry which is the chief handicap to the present local bodies will be minimised. A subsidy of 15s in the £ is to be paid from the Consolidated Fund to eash province on the amount of its general rates, and as the provincial councils will be the bodies which may raise for public works within their jurisdiction, there can be no doubt that the local bodies generally will be relieved of much anxiety and will be on a "better wicket" than heretofore. The creation of provincial councils will mean the death of numerous small bodies now existing, and which magnify the work of the general government, for these councils will undertake the work relative to charitable aid, hospitals, public health, education, harbors, main roads and bridges, drainage and water supply. The Premier some time ago told an audience tfrdt there are 546 county councils, borough councils, town boards, and road, river water supply and drainage boards in the country, and that 168 of these bodies have revenues of less than £SOO a year. "The cost of management of these 168 in ■ proportion to their revenue runs," said the Premier, "from 17.58 per cent, to 26.72 per cent., as against 9.4 per cent, for counties and 4.28 for boroughs. The idea is, therefore, to put an end to the multiplicity of public bodies, to minimise the cost of local government, to make it more effective, more concentrated and more pleasant for the members who undertake the duties." If, when the reform arrives, members of local bodies take lessons in the businesslike conduct of meetings, and remember that any ordinary New Zealand road board is more talkative about a small eulvert than the London County Council is over the Tower Bridge or the demolition of ten thousand slums, they may assist materially in effecting a very desirable change in the conduct of local, county and provincial affairs.